For the last time – yes, you can be feminine and play sports! « Fit and FeministI want to know why people find it so unsettling when they encounter a boy who wants to dress up like a princess or a girl who wants to cut her hair short and wear baggy pants. I want to understand why people are so horrified by trans* people and gender-queerdos. I want people to explain why they react so negatively to anyone whose gender expression fails to align with the expected markers. Can we talk about that? Can we talk about how a society that prides itself on freedom can come down so hard on the people who choose to actually exercise that freedom?
So not only would I like to ask that people stop acting as though athletic women are single-handedly perverting the natural order of things, but I’d also like to request that people stop it already with the obsessive gender policing. How about instead of focusing on whether or not people are good at being “men” or being “women,” we care more about whether they are good at being a decent human being? Can you imagine what this(tags: gendertrans )

The more I read and hear from my friends about the current state of Job Centres and Workfare, the more I feel like history is repeating itself.

My Dad lost his job as an Electronic and Electrical Engineer with British Steel in 1989. He spent almost two years out of work, desperately applying for anything he could find, reporting stories of how the Job Centre and other 'employment providers' would bully, intimidate and look down upon the very people they were supposed to be helping.

A friend of mine with a first-class honours degree in English Literature and Philosophy cannot get a job. She suffers from neurological problems that cause crippling migraines, but she is still incredibly pleasant and clever with a degree under her belt... and she is telling me the exact same stories I heard fro my dad back in 89/90.

I'v been on a funded training course for a year. The year is now up and I'm one of the unemployed again.

I'm really worried I'm going to be shoved into one of these stupid "back to work" programs. The training I did was to be a Biology curator. There are no jobs in this field out there at the moment, and I'm trying my best to find things that SOMEWHAT fit the skills I've gained.

I'm really starting to resent the feeling from the government that me trying to get ahead in a career I worked hard for, instead of stacking shelves like I did when I was 21 makes me an elitist or a snob.

About This Blog

Hello! I'm Jennie (known to many as SB, due to my handle, or The Yorksher Gob because of my old blog's name). This blog is my public face; click here for a list of all the other places you can find me on t'interwebs.

Please note that any and all opinions expressed in this blog are subject to random change at whim my own, and not necessarily representative of my party, or any of the constituent parts thereof (except myself, obviously).